Energy consumption in greenhouses and selection of an optimized heating system with minimum energy consumption

Abstract In this paper, heat loss is precisely computed by a proposed code considering different climates. Estimating the costs of different central heating system, unit heaters were selected as the most feasible system. Finally, considering the heating capacity and unit heater's dimensions a computational fluid dynamics model was developed to find the optimized configuration of unit heaters in a typical greenhouse. Using this model, the required thermal load for a greenhouse based on the daily temperature of Arak city in 2017 was computed with a smart control system. It was found that savings in energy consumption were approximately 5447 m 3 of natural gas each year.